


The Danger of Growing Up

by lostmind3



Category: Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie
Genre: Peter Pan is not nice, The book is darker than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:48:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7624564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostmind3/pseuds/lostmind3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out..."<br/>Being a Lost Boy isn't all fun and games...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Danger of Growing Up

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot was inspired by the quote above that I found in the original book  
> Much as I love the story of Peter Pan, it definitely has its creepier moments.

A lost boy’s life is simple and glorious. Follow Peter and find adventure. Kill pirates, play games with fairies and Indians and mermaids, listen to stories. Stay up past bedtime, because bedtimes do not exist. Eat cake or chocolate every day because a meal is whatever you imagine it to be. Laugh and fly because you are a lost boy of Never Neverland, and Peter is your friend.  
  


But a boy’s life cannot last forever; all children, except one, grow up. It starts small: sleeves just a little too short, a lost tooth. Or perhaps it begins with a quiet answer to the dreaded question, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ The boy is noticed. Peter draws close. For a while, all might be well. The boy is still a boy after all, and so Peter smiles. What child can resist the smile of Peter Pan? How could the lost boy possibly know its danger? He cannot, and so he is drawn in.  
  


He becomes Peter’s second in command, his right hand man… but that is the very problem is it not? Would that we could warn him, this trusting little boy, but we are not really in Neverland, he cannot hear our cry. So Peter remains close, with his cocky laugh and watchful eyes. And still the boy changes, as little boys do, a loose tooth here, a growth spurt there. If he is lucky the lost boy may be captured by pirates, or Peter will return once more with a storyteller, so that the lost boy can be drawn away from Pan’s service. Alas, it is not to be, and one day soon Peter will look upon his lost boy and see not a boy but a man.  
  


On that day Peter will smile. A different sort of smile than before for sure, but the lost boy (who is no longer truly a boy) will not see it. At Peter’s word he will join the latest adventure, an adventure for just the two of them. And so it ends. Peter and the man enter the forest. Peter returns. The lost boys might notice this strange occurrence. They might ask where their member went. But Peter will look at them in confusion and ask ‘Who?’ He will leap into his new story – the pirate that tried to ambush him in the woods, perhaps – and the boys will laugh at his victory crow. They will follow him into their next adventure, with never again a thought for the boy who grew up.  
  


Neverland makes you forget, you see. Forget that growing up is against the rules. Forget that there were friends that broke those rules. And most importantly, forget that you are breaking them too.


End file.
